That trial is now set for the end of April, and is expected to take about six weeks. One Falls Church congregant I spoke with worries not just about the eventual ownership of the properties, but about the eventual intentions of the Episcopal Church itself. When I asked what was the worst case scenario, he pointed me to the outcome of a similar case in Binghamton, New York. The Episcopal Church’s victory over a breakaway church there led to this:

The Church of the Good Shepherd, which has stood at #79 Conklin Avenue since 1879, has been willingly turned over to a Muslim entity by the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, rather than have it remain in the hands of traditional Anglicans who practice the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

The death knell for the structure as a Christian house of worship was delivered on February 9, 2010, when it was sold to Imam Muhammad Affify, doing business as the Islamic Awareness Center, for a mere $50,000, a fraction of the church’s assessed $386,400 value.

Now, two months later, the classic red Anglican doors have been repainted green, the simple cross on top of the steeply peaked bell tower has been lopped off, and a windowpane cross in the side door has been disfigured leaving only narrow vertical glass with the cross beam being painted over to hide it. The Muslims consider the cross a pagan symbol.

Meanwhile the Rev. Matt Kennedy, his wife and partner in ministry Anne, their young family and congregation were sent packing in the bitter cold and deep snow in January 2008 when the New York Supreme Court ordered them to relinquish the 130-year-old church building which stands overlooking the meandering Susquehanna River.

Good Shepherd had offered to purchase the property before any legal proceedings began, but TEC refused, just as it has refused to settle with the majority of the Virginia churches. After winning the Binghamton suit, TEC sold the historic church to the Islamic group for about a third of what the congregation had offered.

In a strange new twist on the church lawsuits, TEC just this week settled with a breakaway church in Leesburg, VA. The terms of that settlement, though, allow the church to lease back its property from TEC but forbid the church from affiliating with the Anglican Communion or any other affiliated group, and no bishops may visit the church without TEC’s permission. So the breakaway isn’t really a breakaway: TEC is still in effective control. Freedom of conscience and association are the casualties. Or as one commenter put it, freedom is granted except for the chains. And add to that, this:

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is on record saying she would sooner see fleeing parishes sold for saloons than see them affiliate with African and Southern Cone dioceses that uphold “the faith once delivered for all to the saints.”

Saloons rather than traditional churches? That is why the word “jihad” is in the title of this article. The Episcopal Church’s actions in Binghamton and elsewhere defy reason, unless they were intended to send a very strong and unmistakable message to traditional congregants who might be thinking of breaking away: Defy us, and we will not only hound and possibly crush your congregation through expensive lawsuits, we will see that your cherished houses of worship are desecrated. And we will go to any lengths to send this message, even if we must turn your houses of worship into saloons, or mosques. Even if George Washington himself once worshiped there.

Bryan Preston has been a leading conservative blogger and opinionator since founding his first blog in 2001. Bryan is a military veteran, worked for NASA, was a founding blogger and producer at Hot Air, was producer of the Laura Ingraham Show and, most recently before joining PJM, was Communications Director of the Republican Party of Texas.

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1.
Bohemond

The Episcopal Church nationally has been in the hands of ultra-left liberation theology Gaia-worshippers for years. I left and became a Roman Catholic for that reason. Even so, the sheer vindictiveness of these persecutions indicates that they’ve gone full Marxist.

No one ever gets away with anything in the end, at the last judgment. For those who have styled themselves teachers but who have turned away from God, and led others in that rebellion, as has “Bishop” Schori, the judgment will be most severe.

“Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also
The body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still
His kingdom is forever”

I have stopped being surprised by the Episcopal Churches of America. I belong to a small congregation in a small town in rural New Hampshire. I was very disheartened on reading the piece about the Good Shepherd Church in Binghamton, NY. So, I checked on Snopes and found the url for the church which was updated four days ago. It is still an active Episcopal church. I saw nothing posted about Muslim customs or worship. Please check more carefully before spreading untruths.

Per their web site ( http://is.gd/oicxfp ), the church is at 356 Conklin, not 79 Conklin as Bryan writes. Perhaps they moved after losing their original site? In fact, if you look here ( http://is.gd/X2hc2b ) You’ll see a photo of the new Islamic center with its green door. The article discusses the suit and the the congregation’s lack of a church. It turns out the congregation did move into the unused facilities of St. John and Andrew Catholic Church, which had a spare church and rectory after a merger of parishes.

As a Virginian, I know the pain of seeing so many historic parishes fall into the hands of the determined enemies of Christian, American, and Western tradition.
By “enemies” I do not mean the prospective saloon-owners, nor even Muslims, but the modern Episcopalians, who have sold their (and OUR) rich heritage for a mess of venomous pottage.

I only hope that Dean from Ohio (#2 above) is right and that one day the destroyers will answer to a higher Judge.

Unfortunately, your article is disingenuous. The breakaway church has clearly left the TEC even after the Anglican Archbishop and the Anglican authorities had upheld the national boundaries of the various Anglican communions–there is no clear Anglican warrant for the African-based communion now including the Falls Church to have “poached” on the TEC “territory” in the first place. Moreover, unmentioned by the author, dates of the deeds are not in and of themselves dispositive–the hierarchal claim of the central TEC to church title possibly will not be over ridden in ongoing court litigation notwithstanding that prior to the Falls Church’s incorporation into the American Episcopal communion it’s deeds were individually registered and notwithstanding formal incorporation or not of those deeds in subsequent organizations and reorganizations of the American Episcopal Church. That is to say, that a majority of congregants may not be in the legal position to retain the church property notwithstanding not only the desire of a minority of worshippers to retain the “traditional” TEC service, liturgy, and doctrine, but the organizational, financial, and clerical support provided to the Falls Church by the central Episcopalian bodies in the decades and centuries preceding the schism. Your writer also failed to note the particular nuance of the “division law”–the Civil War era legislation under which the Falls Church dissenters wished to retain their property in their new communion. That law permitted “breakaway” churches to retain church property in intra-denominational disputes. Again, there is a healthy minority who did not wish to see the Falls Church in a new communion; the judge ruled that it was illogical to view the dissenters as breaking away in an intramural denominational dispute as they had taken themselves completely out of participation in the national communion and, in effect, joined another church.

There just, as of this writing, is no reason to believe that the Falls Church congregation in their new communion has a prima facie right to retain the Falls Church property. As noted, if they were a Protestant church, the right would probably be uncontested; if they were a Catholic Church it would be unsustainable. As it is a chief support for that right has been overturned in court and the question remains open.

The differences in doctrine, social attitudes, favorability to gay ordination or the possibility of salvation outside a code of relationship to the Christian Savior, between the TEC and the breakaway congregation are really not relevant, although polemicists on both sides of the divide attempt to stir the pot by highlighting emotional ideological stances that the courts will not at all consider.

I don’t care what the legal situation is. That this so-called bishop Schori and others in the TEC hierarchy are so vindictive that they would prefer to see church buildings desecrated rather than be put to use to further God’s kingdom is abominable. As far as I can tell, they are christians in name only. May God send his judgment on the TEC.

Hi grumpy, I have to admit it is refreshing to encounter folks who skip the fancy writin’ part and skip right to the juicy proud-to-be-an-American idiot bit. You stand shoulder to shoulder with Glenn Beck. And what exactly is idiotic, come to think about it, in pointing out that the courts really really do not care if the TEC loves social justice and sexual inclusiveness and the dissident churches have opposite positions? But no, our know-nothing anti-intellectuals right and left are proud to proclaim–that feller over there is bad/immoral/evil/Islamic/Islamophobic and therefore what they are doing is illegal/against the Constitution/out to be outlawed.

The full legal name of the national church corporate body is the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

My wife and I had the new Rector of our Episcopal Church here in suburban St. Louis, and his family, for dinner shortly after he was elected by our search committee. Discussion eventually turned to “the schism” – Canon Law, the Bishopric, Diocesan Rule – the entire, vexing argument for and against the national church body.

My wife’s summation of the entire discussion was quite simple and elegant:

“Men ruin everything.”

The ruination began around 1890 as the Episcopal Church entered participation in the Social Gospel movement.

The end result of numerous distortions of Christ’s gospel, but in particular ‘radical’ homosexuality, where ‘sexual orientation’ trumps all other interests, including former spouses, children, country, or religious beliefs.

Whatever is going on between Christians, calling it jihad does a great disservice in understanding the real jihad which is going on against us right now, and which bears no resemblance whatsoever to this forgettable squabble among Christians.

Since no one remembers what marxism or communism is, using the term jihad (just another leftist totalitarian ideology that the church seems to be following – i.e. secular humanism) is at least understandable to the currant generation.

on the contrary. they all have the same origin – the father of lies, who seeks to make men (people) as miserable as himself. the technique varies according to group, but the author and goal is the same.

If consecrated Christian church buildings are being given over to Muslims for far less than they are worth, then it’s jihad. One of the first things that Muslim invaders always do is to make a point of taking over as many church buildings as they can find, and so as to turn them over to Muslim purposes.

Perhaps there is a legal reason that allows you to use the system to smash the underpinnings of this society, which you obviously approve of, but that does not make your cold blooded assault against worshipping Americans morally right. To you leftists there always is a good reason to assault mainstream religiosity and our moral foundation. It’s merely not a sport for you, it justifies your collective Godlessness.

There are no rules, right, Freedman?

@Grady. They’ll come for you first. Thanks for being the sacrificial lamb.

As for me. I do not belong to, nor do I attend an organized church, but I still have a dog in this fight. I recognize religious intolerance and persecution when I see it and I will not tolerate it.

Is your name really P. Henry Saddleburr? Because if it isn’t, that’s a great made-up name for a pompous Tidewater gen’lmunn. And you really have the voice down perfectly. Exactly the kind of V’jinny “Cavalier” West Virginia seceded from.

Henry, your invective is nice but has nothing to do with what I actually wrote and the charge that I seek to undermine society blah blah blah is frankly unhinged. I didn’t say I agreed with the TEC’s doctrinal positions or happy or unhappy that they used the courts to keep their property though, no, I don’t think the TEC is part of a concerted plot to knowingly undermine this country and leech out its precious bodily fluids. They are not preventing the breakaway congregants from worshipping in another property but it is a very very very very nice and recently improved church and grounds and I fully understand why the majority members of the congregation dissenting from the TEC wish to stay there. I would personally be very happy if the Catholic St. Paul Church here in Falls Church would declare itself the Church of Rabbi Nachman Grateful Deadhead Inc but would not be surprised if those old fuddy reactionaries of the Catholic hierarchy took steps to preserve the old ways. In this cae the old ways are the new progressive ways but so what?

The author is correct to point out that there have been issues of conscious and doctrine within the TEC. However, the congregants of Falls Church, other VA churches, made a choice to disassociate with the TEC USA. Their vestries, being responsible people, were certainly aware that the deeds to the property were held by TEC and not the local congregations.

TEC, and Anglicanism itself, takes a rather unique view of most issues of faith. We know that there are certain key things which should be part of ones beliefs because they are necessary to being defined as a Christian. The rest of it, including female ordination to the bishopric (the issue from the 70′s) and homosexuality (the current issue) are not, obviously, easily resolved. However, TEC did not leave the table or turn away anyone in the Communion seeking dialogue. Falls Church chose to walk away rather than work through the upheaval and attempt to make positive changes within their denomination. They knew it would be iffy and costly, but they did it anyway. Its a beautiful piece of property. My husband’s cousin attends services there, and she reports they are a thriving congregation in spite of the cost of their legal pursuits.

Now, having said that, I am certainly investigating the issue of the NY property being turned over to a Muslim worship space. This is the first I have heard of that situation.

Yeah – not buying it. If it was just a matter of property they could have sold it. They (the TEC) have chosen to raze the ground and sow it with salt – so to speak – all because these congregations have chosen to remain conservative and faithful to God’s word and not the rabid lefty ideology that is destroying (and emptying) churches across this country.

Why do you think the churches in Europe stand either empty or are now mosques? Because they (the churches) bowed down before political correctness and abandoned God’s laws and word.

It’s worse than that. The Virginia churches (of which I am a member) had negotiated a “buy out” with the TEC Diocese of Virginia. But days before the deal was concluded, the TEC presiding Bishop (whom some of us colloquially refer to as “The White Witch”) paid a visit and put a stick up the back of the Virginia Bishop. You could hear it in his voice. He was always a “can’t we all just get along” liberal (and was genuinely trying to get along with the very sensible buyout), but after the White Witch visit, he sounded like a robot. The process is very expensive for the Virginia TEC Diocese as well as ADV churches.

Disclaimer, I am a member, but do not serve in any official capacity, and these are my personal observations.

Although I would not have put it as Grady did @4, I do think there is value it keeping the use of words close to their original meaning. With word inflation, valuable words begin to lose their power, such as ‘genocide’ and ‘holocaust’.

First off, this should teach all readers about the dangers of denominationalism. You give to a church (whether it be Roman Catholic, ELCA, TEC, PCUSA, you name it) and despite the pretense of loyalty to the Bible or a so-called “democratic” polity, the sad truth is that distant and unaccountable leadership can hijack it at any time. How many of our parents and grandparents would have found these churches heinous…yet they gave copiously to them, not knowing that their support would be essentially stolen? You’re much better off with an independent church with a constitution that allows you to vote out Elders, etc. And Elders who live locally, with families and friends in the congregation, will personally face the pain of any doctrinal shift and will not pursue one with the eagerness and arrogance we see here.
Second, Sir Thomas More had no problem writing out death warrants (writs of heresy and treason) against Tyndale and the like. So the sword he wielded turns against him? Good. Live by it, die by it. Holding More up as a martyr is like holding up one of Hitler’s henchmen as a good guy because when things turned sour he tried to assassinate Hitler. More liked the system just fine while he prospered.

Independent decentralized churches still might not prevent bitterness within congregations although the reach-for-the-lawsuit option then is a fight within the congregation and not a dispute between church central and the locals. Beth-El Conservative Congregation in Bethesda (that’s Jewish for those who fear that there is an underground neocon Jewish jihad going on the United States–Ron Paul Truthers, hows it going?) had a very bitter spit over a rabbi who was accused of financial peccadillos–the rabbi eventually had to call it quits and I don’t think it came to lawsuits (or blows).

It has long been my opinion that the leftist takeover of mainline denominations is at bottom, prompted by nothing more than greed and thievery. Leftists don’t seem to be making much of an effort to infiltrate the Southern Baptists, for example. One would think they would be making a real effort to do so, since that denomination is so antithetical to what they believe.

But no, the Southern Baptists are not subject to this infiltration. And why is that? Because each church is owned by its congregation, and thus not easily taken over by these people.

On the other hand, the United Methodist denomination owns most of their church properties, and consequently there has been a heavy infiltration of the left into that church.

Episcopalian Churches, especially in the east, are often custodians or architectural and art treasures, endowments from long-dead parishioners, libraries, and other items of monetary value. The left, by taking over such Churches, gets a platform for their opinions stamped with the respectability of the church, and also a very hefty bank account and real estate holdings, which they will sell off to continue their campaign against America.

These people are thieves, plain and simple. It’s time we call them what they are, instead of allowing them to pose as liberal theologians or whatnot.

PJM has made an alliance with the most frenzied Evangelicals, and it will not end well. Hollywood and Amarillo is a marriage made in Hell, and the divorce will be a messy one, since both parties to the marriage cordially hate each other. For now, you have an enemy in common (or are deluded enough to believe you do); God forbid you should ever win, and stare at each other, realizing the job of extirpation isn’t finished.

I’m a Catholic and I lived in D.C for many years. The Falls Church is a quite beautiful and historic masterpiece of U.S. and Episcopal history. In the end the Falls Church locals will defeat the bishophric and retain their churches. Re: the central N.Y. Episcopal diocese’s decision to practically give away the Binghamton church to Muslims rather than allow peace to reign; like all lefties, when (not if)the Muslims take over central New York, the first victims of jihad (via losing their heads via a rusty saw)will be the female Episcopal bishops, followed by the rest of the liberal Christians. It may take them longer to liquidate non-liberals, and who knows, their jihad may never get that far as non-liberals will fight. The coming jihad may not even get as far as the Falls Church. If it does, I’ll bet its caputski for the religion of peace.

This is the kind of mess a Christina gets into when he abandons Scripture as his only guide, and adopts the ideas of man (which, over time, become tradition, and therefore respectable and Not To Be Questioned).

I have been member of an Episcopal church here in New Jersey for fourteen years. I have served on the vestry and as a delegate to the Diocesan Convention. I sing in the choir and participate in various church functions, from soup kitchen help to gardening. My fellow parishioners are kind and supportive. We welcome all who will come to the table of Christ to join us for communion. As for our political beliefs, they run the gamut without any disagreements separating us. Needless to say, this is a far cry from what we hear of the breakaway denominations. It is hard for me to imagine them holding our Sunday Evening Roundtable discussions without ending in bitter recriminations. Perhaps I am wrong, and I wish I am, but leaving the communion is an extreme act for a trivial dispute. Indeed, it belies a much more severe disagreement for which my position would likely have the breakaways calling me a blasphemer. Both my religious experience from childhood and my reading of Scripture places me firmly on the side of Love and against the power lust of morality and ethics. I feel quite certain that I would be turned away from communion in their church however much we would welcome them to the table in our church.

I also have some acquaintance with the small churches in the Binghamton area that would cast your story of the events there in a far less sinister light. For the past quarter century, most of these small churches have been unable to support full-time clergy, relying instead on part-time supply preachers running circuits, sometimes with the congregation. That is, one Sunday a congregation would worship at one church and the next Sunday at another. This was the result of various denominations merging congregations in the rural areas. Consequently, it has not been unusual for churches to be sold off to whomever will take it off their hands. Thus you find, for example, a house in Lisle which is a converted church, also without its Christian symbols.

jihad is apropros from another point – a “bishop” who would rather see a church as a saloon or mosque than a “church delivered to the saints” is just as evil in practice as those followers of the religion of peace that would like to enforce sharia law upon christians, or the marxists who want no religion of any kind.

George Washington may have been a vestryman at The Falls Church but he attended Christ Church, the Episcopal church in Alexandria. Pohick Church, now on Rte. ! near Mt. Vernon was the closest church but Washington had a feud with George Mason who lived just down the road and he chose to go all the way to Alexandria instead.
Falls church (the town, not the building) is the home of one of the radical schools operated by Muslims in Nothern Virginia. The Muslims also lease an old Fairfax County high school and use it for a Muslim school. I heard that the schools were funded by the Saudis. Boys and girls are taught in separate classes.
I heard a female Episcopal priest interviewed on the radio. The interview was probably 10-13 years ago. The Priest told of not being accepted by the Episcopal hierarchy and the men seated at the front of the church with her all turned their chairs around and would not look at her when she gave the sermon. I may have some of the descriptions of the church incorrect. I am not a church goer.
I do know many of the parishioners at Christ Church and doubt that they would ever concede to the Muslims.

quote:”The Falls Church’s differences with TEC began over doctrinal issues in the 1970s, but came to a head in 2003 with the Episcopal Church’s ordination of the first non-celibate gay bishop.”

By the macro-brevity allotted to this one very important item of doctrine and it’s said point of origin, the “1970’s”, already causes area of concern. You seem to have wanted this article posted in a tight-run manner to leave the impression as some sort of hair-split wrangler. Is the issue of doctrine just not that interesting to you to not give her a hand up chance to clarify the truth? A truth I doubt started, but came to controversy in the 70’s. This may be a fashionable approach, but the lameness doesn’t read well.

You know, articles such as this has the potential to really deliver, I continue to search, but not for the Text Mark v, a few come to mind. Make haste, grab that exh. concordance.

I am Matt Kennedy, the priest mentioned in the story above. I was rector of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd formerly located at 74 Conklin Avenue Binghamton, NY.

The article is true. We were sued and forced out of our buildings despite promises from the bishop that there would be a process of negotiation and an opportunity purchase the buildings. There was no negotiation. All of our offers were refused without a word other than “no”. Then came the lawsuit.

We lost and were forced to leave the property which included the home in which I lived with my wife Anne and (then 4 now 6) kids.

God has blessed us in numerous ways including providing us with a new church building and parsonage just down the road from our former one thanks to the gracious generosity of the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse and one Msgr. Meaghar who, having recently merged two churches, allowed us to move into the newly empty St. Andrew’s Catholic church rectory and hold services in their former sanctuary. In the months following they lowered the asking price in order to give us a great deal of equity based on the quite high appraisal which allowed us to secure a loan and purchase the property at 356 Conklin Avenue.

After we were forced out, there was a new appraisal done on our old building. In this appraisal they found some significant structural problems which dramatically reduced the former appraisal value from 207,000.00(for the sanctuary alone…not including the rectory) to something less than 100K.

That’s when the Diocese of Central New York decided to sell the building to the Muslim group which purchased the building for 50K and subsequently set up a mosque (or “Islamic Awareness Center”) which now operates on the property.

The Episcopal Diocese of Central NY was not willing to sell at such a low price…they were forced to do so by the new appraisal. Had they been less greedy and decided to negotiate rather than sue, they would have gotten much much more money from our various offers based on the older appraisal. But they made their choice–both to kick us out and to sell to a non-Christian group. And they are facing the consequences for both decisions.

I am Matt Kennedy, the priest mentioned in the story above. I was rector of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd formerly located at 74 Conklin Avenue Binghamton, NY.

The article is true. We were sued and forced out of our buildings despite promises from the bishop that there would be a process of negotiation and an opportunity purchase the buildings. There was no negotiation. All of our offers were refused without a word other than “no”. Then came the lawsuit.

We lost and were forced to leave the property which included the home in which I lived with my wife Anne and (then 4 now 6) kids.

God has blessed us in numerous ways including providing us with a new church building and parsonage just down the road from our former one thanks to the gracious generosity of the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse and one Msgr. Meaghar who, having recently merged two churches, allowed us to move into the newly empty St. Andrew’s Catholic church rectory and hold services in their former sanctuary. In the months following they lowered the asking price in order to give us a great deal of equity based on the quite high appraisal which allowed us to secure a loan and purchase the property at 356 Conklin Avenue.

After we were forced out, there was a new appraisal done on our old building. In this appraisal they found some significant structural problems which dramatically reduced the former appraisal value from 207,000.00(for the sanctuary alone…not including the rectory) to something less than 100K.

That’s when the Diocese of Central New York decided to sell the building to the Muslim group which purchased the building for 50K and subsequently set up a mosque (or “Islamic Awareness Center”) which now operates on the property.

The Episcopal Diocese of Central NY was not willing to sell at such a low price…they were forced to do so by the new appraisal. Had they been less greedy and decided to negotiate rather than sue, they would have gotten much much more money from our various offers based on the older appraisal. But they made their choice–both to kick us out and to sell to a non-Christian group. And they are facing the consequences for both decisions.

One small quibble: the comment, “the church that henry created”. Henry VIII did not create the Anglican church; it had already been in existence for more than 9 centuries. What he did was separate it from Rome. He did not even reform it. That was left to the next reign.

When liberation theology creeps in and people cast aspersions on the Trinity, they more or less repudiate God’s omnipotence in favor of man. This disease has become rampant in the Episcopal church, and if you can’t stem this heretical tide the next best thing to do is sever your connection and plant a new church outside of the TEC’s clutches, which is what my church has done. Happily, all the old unspoken tensions were left behind and our present prayer life is wonderful and bonds people together like nothing else. If you are at odds with your Epsicopal church, consider seceding. Don’t get into property hassles, find somewhere to rent. Church is not the building, however beautiful or historic, church is the body of Christ, never lose sight of that please.

This whole matter strikes me as similar to the secession issue of the American Civil War. Why would the United States of America want the Union to be dissolved so easily? Ironically, the Confederacy in fighting for its right to secede, almost guaranteed future secession from the Confederacy, itself, (had the Confederacy survived).

As a simple matter of property rights, the TEC should should have the right to sell to whomever it chooses.

Waging lawsuits is the modern day equivalent to going to war. It is a choice, however ill advised. The TEC’s selling to someone other than the dissenting and seceding new church, I think, is comparable to a retreating army burning up its own forts, gunpowder magazines, barracks, defenses, and food-stuffs rather than letting them fall into the hands of the enemy. (I recognize that a sale to a Muslim community is a greater enemy than a dissenting and seceding church, but has anyone ever seen irrational behavior in the divorce of a friend or relative?)

So? What of it? Is there anyone who hasn’t known that for quite a long time?

I mean, the Episcopal leadership have for some time, with scant exceptions, been more distant from the ancient faith than the Arians or the Novatians or the Montanists.

Poor C.S.Lewis, despite his Belfast upbringing, would have likely crossed the Tiber by now had he lived to see this. But he lived in an era when even the American branch of the Anglican Communion could still be easily mistaken for a naturally developed outgrowth of the one holy catholic and apostolic church. No longer.

The sad reality is that the Anglican church can’t survive without a patriarch capable of rendering judgment in matters of church discipline. But their whole theory of authority is that that’s precisely what they don’t have. They’re unable to implement the kind of corrections of the wayward indicated by Jesus in Matthew 18 or by Paul in 1st Corinthians 5 because they’re conscious of their history and don’t want to look like they have anything resembling a pope or a Magisterium.

On the other hand, as a hierarchical church rather than a congregational one, they’d be in deep trouble were they to have an authoritative hierarchy capable of rendering judgments, and someone representative of their current leadership happened to hold power. So they’d also need some kind of rule which said that once a dogma was pronounced with authority, it became obligatory on all the faithful forever…and that all the dogmas believed by the saints and martyrs had, in fact, been pronounced with authority and were, in fact, forever obligatory.

The Episcopal Church has none of that. No authority to remove kooks, and no dogmatic certainty from which to firmly teach that the kooks are, in fact, kooks.

So, for lack of these things, you get Gene Robinson and Shelby Spong and Schori herself. All three should have been excommunicated long ago, or at least removed from any teaching authority, if things were run in an apostolic fashion. All the early church fathers stand witness to such authoritative judgment.

Instead, you get poor Rowan Williams being scholarly and hesitant, mumbling through his beard about avoiding divisive attitudes. What’s needed, in dealing with the current ruling cabal of Episcopals, is someone more along the lines of St. Jerome.

For lack of that, it’s either find a bishop from Africa, or cross the Tiber to commune with the Patriarch of the West. Either is preferable to the current clown show.